Adventures of two boys learning while living, from the mother who makes it all possible.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Back to the Future

Nico has been playing a Back to the Future game on the PS3. It's not the most action packed game ever. It doesn't have the best graphics of all time. But for some reason he really, really enjoys the game. He has been enjoying the game so much that he actually sat down and watched all three Back to the Future movies; which he says he also really liked.

It just goes to show that there's no predicting the things that might capture your child's attention. I think part of the reason Nico likes the game so much is that it's filled with puzzles for him to work out. I like him playing the game, because he's been learning so much from it. As I was cleaning this morning, I listened as he tried to complete one section of the game. It took him about ten tries. The goal was to complete an experiment for Doc, while Doc had an argument with his father in another room. During the argument, Doc was yelling out key words, which Nico had to listen for, to know what to do next in the experiment. Words like: Fire, Burning, Pressure, Hot Air, Shock, Bacteria, Lightening.

Let's think about all the things Nico learned, just from that one section of the game. Listening skills, following directions, deciphering clues, experimental procedures, new vocabulary words, scientific reasoning. I'm sure the list can go on and on.

The game as a whole has sparked a deeper interest in time, specifically years. Before playing this game, Nico never really thought beyond months, weeks, and days. But jumping through time on the game has got him thinking more about the years. How they are numbered, and what kinds of thing happened when. He's started referring more to the year we are in now, 2012. He's referenced years in the past; such as in 2010 such and such happened. And he's asking more questions about history.

Who knew? All this from a game I wouldn't have thought he would even be interested in.

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‎"Life is learning, learning is life. Unschoolers simply do not think there are times for learning and times for not learning. They don't divide life into school time or lesson time versus play time or recreation time. There is no such thing as "extracurricular" to an unschooler - all of life, every minute of every day, counts as learning time, and there is no separate time set aside for "education." Pam Sorooshian